German POWs in the USSR

By Professor Buzzkill / September 17, 2024 / Comments Off on German POWs in the USSR

German soldiers were kept in the Soviet Union until the late 1950s. Professor Grunewald explains why the Soviets kept the POWs after the war, what they did with them, and why they were incarcerated for so long. Was it retribution for the millions of Soviet war dead? Were the German POWs used as a necessary…

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Birthright Citizenship: 2024 Election Special

By Professor Buzzkill / September 10, 2024 / Comments Off on Birthright Citizenship: 2024 Election Special

Crikey. I used to think that no American presidential election could be more strange than the ones in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump would just throw out random, fact-free statements, and they would be taken as gospel by his followers. That part of the electorate, essentially, turned his falsehoods into their own reality. That’s happening…

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Image and the Nixon-Kennedy 1960 Election Debates

By Professor Buzzkill / September 3, 2024 / Comments Off on Image and the Nixon-Kennedy 1960 Election Debates

It’s September 3rd, and we’ve been told that there’s going to be a debate between the Republican candidate for President, Donald Trump, and the Democratic candidate for President, Kamala Harris, on September 10th. Given all the changes that have taken place during this tumultuous campaign, and the frankly unhinged nature of one of the candidates,…

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An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South

By Professor Buzzkill / August 27, 2024 / Comments Off on An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South

Slave trading continued in the south during the Civil War. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands of African American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of…

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Women in Nazi Germany, Part 2

By Professor Buzzkill / August 20, 2024 / Comments Off on Women in Nazi Germany, Part 2

Professor Nash tells us about wives and lovers of leading Nazis, women who participated in Nazi crimes, and women who worked against the Nazi regime. We look at everyone from Eva Braun, Hitler’s partner, to Sophie Scholl, one of the leaders of the White Rose resistance to the Nazi state. This episode shows that German…

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Women in Nazi Germany, Part 1

By Professor Buzzkill / August 13, 2024 / Comments Off on Women in Nazi Germany, Part 1

The treatment and status of women under Hitler and the Nazis is fascinating, in all the wrong ways. If the Nazi reputation wasn’t bad enough, the detail presented in this episode shows that there’s no bottom to their depravity. Professor Philip Nash explains all in the first part of a major two-part series. These are…

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Pat Nixon

By Professor Buzzkill / August 6, 2024 / Comments Off on Pat Nixon

The real Pat Nixon bore little resemblance to the woman so often described as elusive, mysterious and “plastic” in the press. Heath Hardage Lee takes us through Pat Nixon’s life and career. And myths are busted left and right. Learn how Pat Nixon, the supposed quiet housewife, was actually a career woman, and an important…

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The USS Indianapolis and the Famous Shark Attack – 2024 Encore

By Professor Buzzkill / July 30, 2024 / Comments Off on The USS Indianapolis and the Famous Shark Attack – 2024 Encore

Today I am not going to bust many myths (although there are a few of those in this tale). Rather, I’m going to tell you a straight history story. But it’s also one that shows the value of diligence in historical research and the importance of righting the wrongs from the past. And those themes,…

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Presidential Primaries and Conventions: Just What is the Deal with Them?

By Professor Buzzkill / July 25, 2024 / Comments Off on Presidential Primaries and Conventions: Just What is the Deal with Them?

American Presidential primaries and conventions seem excessively complicated, and maybe even outdated. Could they all just be an email, as office workers say nowadays? Fortunately, Professor Philip Nash explains all! We can’t promise that we make primaries and conventions seem logical and sensible. But we do our best! Episode 558.

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Southern Violence and White Supremacy in the Civil War Era

By Professor Buzzkill / July 23, 2024 / Comments Off on Southern Violence and White Supremacy in the Civil War Era

Professor James Hill Welborn joins us to discuss the question – how did white Southerners in the nineteenth century reconcile a Christian faith that instructed them to turn the other cheek with a pervasive code of honor that instructed them to do just the opposite—to demand satisfaction for perceived insults? He analyzes the birth of…

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